| City of Nottingham | |
|---|---|
 |
Nottingham City Centre is the central area of Nottingham, and the Greater Nottingham conurbation as a whole.
It is where the city's major railway station, Council House and main shopping centres are located. Nottingham Express Transit trams run through the area, terminating at Station Street.
The undisputed central feature of the city centre is the Old Market Square, right at the heart of the city. This is undergone a major redevelopment programme which was completed in March 2007. Most of the main shopping streets are based around the square which is dominated by The Council House, whose landmark dome can be seen for miles around. Much of the ground floor of the Council House is taken up by the Exchange Arcade, a shopping centre of boutique stores.
Bohemian quarter of the city known as Hockley has arisen in recent years, situated close to the Lace Market area.
Contents |
Shopping
Nottingham is 5th in Experian's top 15 retail areas list.[1] The city centre's fashion core is centred around Bridlesmith Gate which is home to upmarket names such as Kurt Geiger, Ted Baker and Diesel. Home-grown Sir Paul Smith's flagship store is not far away on Middle Pavement and Hugo Boss is located on St. Peter's Gate. The London based Harvey Nichols fashion store has confirmed plans to open a Nottingham branch set to open in 2012/2013. There are also plans to open an Armani store in St Peters Gate in the city.[2]
Zones
Main article: Nottingham Parksmart
Nottingham city centre is split into five "zones" which were introduced with the Nottingham Parksmart scheme in 2009 to signpost visitors to parking facilities and tourist attractions. The zones are: Lace Market, Broadmarsh, Castle, Royal and Victoria.
Visitor Attractions
Nottingham Castle is an attraction for visitors to the city due to its famous links with Nottingham's most famous son, Robin Hood along with The Tales of Robin Hood (based nearby on Maid Marian Way) which is an indoor attraction recreating medieval Nottingham. The Brewhouse Yard Museum (Museum of Nottingham Life) and the Museum of Costume and Textiles are close by as was The Lace Centre, formerly housed in the medieval, timber-framed Severns building which documented Nottingham's illustrious lace-making heritage. The Lace Centre closed in April 2009. [3]
Part of Nottingham's vastly expansive cave network is open to the public in the shape of the City of Caves attraction and The Galleries of Justice museum on High Pavement was once a fully functioning Victorian courtroom.
Notable churches within the city centre include the Roman Catholic St. Barnabas' Cathedral on Derby Road and the medieval St. Mary's Church at the heart of the Lace Market.
The National Ice Centre (which incorporates Nottingham Arena) is located close to the city's historic Lace Market quarter and is the first twin Olympic ice-pad facility in the UK. It is the home of the Nottingham Panthers ice-hockey team.
Rock City is a mid-sized music venue that draws many popular bands from across the world, and so is an important part of Nottingham's music tourism scene.
Entertainment
Nottingham is home to a wide variety of entertainment venues, the largest of which is the 9,500-seater Trent FM Arena (part of the National Ice Centre), where many big name acts perform every year.[4]
The city's major producing theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse, has built up a national reputation for its exciting, innovative and contemporary new works.
The Royal Centre incorporates the 2,500-seater Nottingham Royal Concert Hall and the Victorian Theatre Royal. The Royal Concert Hall is the region's top venue for classical music and regularly plays host to world-class orchestras and ballets and the Theatre Royal is considered to be one of the finest venues in the country for major touring West End musicals, plays and operas.
The Corner House entertainment complex houses a multi-screen Cineworld cinema and is now an integral part of city life with its multitude of continental-style pavement cafes and restaurants.
Also near The Corner House is the newly redeveloped Trinity Square,[5] The area contains a new carpark, apartments, and floor units for shops. Some notable shops have opened, such as Waitrose, PC World and TK Maxx, while shops such as GBK have bought a unit with 9,590 sq ft of floor space, but have yet to open.[6]
Eastside City
Eastside City is the name of the redevelopment project that is set to transform an extensive former industrial brownfield area to the east of Nottingham City Centre's historic core. This area stretches from the Nottingham-Beeston Canal in the south towards the National Ice Centre.[7]At the heart of the regeneration zone will be The Island site which will be totally overhauled to become a thriving city quarter with public open spaces, restaurants and bars and a much-needed new park for the city's inhabitants. The development will consist of new homes, offices of the highest quality and brand new retail units.[8]
Notable Buildings
- Council House
- Nottingham Playhouse
- Nottingham Castle
- Nottingham Cathedral
- St. Mary's Church, Nottingham
- Nottingham Station
- Victoria Centre
- Corner House
- Victoria Centre flats
- Broadmarsh Shopping Centre
- National Ice Centre
- Theatre Royal, Nottingham
- Marco Island
References
External links
|
|||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
